Roiz's law firm, Aiman-Smith & Marcy, however, issued a statement on May 22 saying Roiz was pregnant with Murthy's child and when Murthy discovered this, he pressured her to have an abortion.

In 2003, when Jennifer Griffith, a former Infosys employee, filed a lawsuit against Phaneesh Murthy, the second such case against him, he vowed to fight it "even if it means dipping into my retirement funds". A year later, Murthy, then CEO of iGate Corporation, paid Griffith a hefty $800,000 to settle the matter out of court. Now, a decade later, he may have to erode his bank account further, as the sacked executive prepares to fight charges of sexual harassment levelled against him by Araceli Roiz, iGate's head of investor relations.

Phaneesh Murthy

Murthy, 48, who had vehemently denied the first two accusations, accepted he did have a relationship with Roiz for a few months, but rubbished all charges of sexual harassment. "Araceli Roiz...has filed charges against me claiming sexual harassment. She has not filed in a court, just sent a letter to the companyâ€¦ I do believe the charges are completely false. But it is pursuant to a relationship I had with her," Murthy said in a teleconference with some media houses on May 21 from the US.

Roiz's law firm, Aiman-Smith & Marcy, however, issued a statement on May 22 saying Roiz was pregnant with Murthy's child and when Murthy discovered this, he pressured her to have an abortion. When she refused, Murthy told her to leave the company quietly, the statement said. The law firm also said that it would be taking legal action against iGate too, "because iGate is liable for the acts of Murthy". The California-based Aiman-Smith & Marcy is the same law firm that dealt with the first two cases, making Murthy claim that he is being victimised.

The latest misadventure is likely to bring the curtains down on Murthy's eventful career. Once touted as the poster boy of the Indian it industry who jet-setted the globe, he struck lucrative deals for his then employer, Infosys. As the global head of marketing at Infosys between 1995 and 2002, Murthy is credited with having grown Infosys's revenues in the US from a mere $2 million to over $700 million. "He is an extraordinary and clever marketing person," says Mohandas Pai, former director of human resources at Infosys. "He is an alpha male."

"That he is a star is an overstatement. He was an aggressive marketer at Infosys. At iGate, he had big ideas, but he was not able to take those to success."- Ganesh Natarajan Former chairman, Nasscom and VC & MD, Zensar Technologies

But in 2002, Nemesis struck in the form of Reka Maximovitch, Murthy's executive secretary and a Bulgarian-American national, who filed a sexual harassment suit against him, accusing him of pressuring her to engage in a sexual relationship. Although Infosys had a well-documented policy on sexual harassment and a grievance resolution body, Maximovitch approached the courts directly. Eventually, Infosys paid her $3 million and settled the matter out of court. Murthy then started his own it firm Quintant Systems, which was acquired by iGate in 2003.

The second harassment case went far less noticed than the first, largely because Infosys let Murthy settle it on his own. With that episode behind him, Murthy took flight again, transforming iGate from a loss-making company into one focused on profitability. Under his stewardship, the firm, founded by Sunil Wadhwani and Ashok Trivedi in 1996, grew from $80 million to $1 billion in less than eight years.

In 2011, Murthy and private equity company Apax Partners made a combined bid for Mumbai-based it firm Patni Systems for $1.22 billion. The bid was aggressive, considering Patni was double the size of iGate, but Murthy saw the deal through. It demonstrated his ambition to take iGate into the big league of Indian companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro, and bid for huge US outsourcing contracts.

"It is important for every company to have a sexual harassment policy.The kind of things reported in BPOs where young people are thrown together is itself an eye-opener."-Gita Piramal Author and business historian

For all his aggression, some felt his skills were overrated. "He was an aggressive marketer at Infosys. At iGate, he was successful, especially with the bid for Patni Systems, but I will stop short of calling him a star," says Ganesh Natarajan, former chairman of industry body Nasscom and vice-chairman and MD of Zensar Technologies.

Once the integration of Patni with iGate was complete, Murthy set his eyes on reaching $3 billion in revenues over the next five years by way of the outcome-based model he introduced, where clients will be billed only for the final product and not for the efforts that go into product development. Murthy planned heavy investments in acquiring bigger clients, building a better team and giving up the smaller clients. "The Patni acquisition was a bold step that changed the fortunes of iGate," says Pai. Murthy could well have goaded his firm to the target, but for the latest blow. "iGate has taken the right measure and sacked him. The company has sent a strong message and protected the aggrieved employee, a lesson Indian companies should also learn," says Pai.

Experts in India say the IT sector, with its large number of young, female workforce, is vulnerable to such issues, and companies need to spell out clear policies and punishment. "The kind of things that have been reported in BPOs where young people are thrown together should itself be an eye-opener. But I believe many companies, especially the West-facing ones, have such clear policies," says Gita Piramal, author and business historian. Agrees E. Balaji, MD & CEO at manpower consultant, Randstad India. "The demograhics at the workplace are changing, with more women being employed. This calls for strict sexual harassment laws at the workplace," he says.

Reports say that Murthy may have to forego much of his retirement benefits after his sacking from iGate. Perhaps he can make money again. But his reputation, at its lowest point now, can hardly be repaired.